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Wednesday, 26 December 2012

My Christmas Day

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas! I blinking LOVE Christmas, it's my absolute favourite time of year and I'm all about the Christmas shopping, the wrapping pressies in front of Elf, filling the house with decorations and seasonal smells, eating and drinking and generally being merry!

The way my family does Christmas has always been the same as far back as I can remember. Each year my Mum and my Auntie take it in turn to have everyone round. I think they'd rather that we (the children) would take over, but unlike them none of us have settled down yet. Next year will be a bit different with the arrival of my niece and over the next few years I imagine we'll split into our two separate families, but I like us all being together and, for now, this is how our day goes:

On Christmas morning, only slightly less excited than when we were children, those of us at home congregate in the living room to see what Santa has brought. I have an older sister and a younger brother, but I'm the only one at my parents house this year so I climb into my Santa sack and see what's inside!

This year Santa brought me a cashmere sweater, Hello Kitty calendar, a butterfly clip, chocolate Christmas puds and a snowman pen! Score! We usually ask for one main present, but there's always some sneaky surprise gifts in there too!

After tea and toast we got ready and headed to my Auntie and Uncle's house for 10am. So now there's me, Mum and Dad, Auntie and Uncle, Cousin, Granny, Great Auntie and Uncle, my Brother and his Girlfriend and my Sister. We catch-up over Bucks Fizz (or just the bubbly or orange juice) followed by tea and mince pies.

Then it's pressie time! We take it in turn to hand out the presents we've brought and the room becomes a flurry of wrapping paper and shouts of "oh look!" and "yay!" and "thank you"!

In my family we write Christmas lists. We make a note of things we'd like and these are sneakily passed around and organised so that presents are bought without duplication. Once you write your list, you never look back at it, and the things you get are a nice surprise! It makes shopping much easier too!

I asked for the Pointless book (I love that show!) and I always add Jelly Babies to my list, but I got some ace surprises too, including a HUGE Hersheys Kiss and "'Twas The Knits Before Christmas" which is a storybook including patterns so you can knit the characters!

Christmas socks and gloves are always welcome surprises too! These are my new comfy baffies (slippers!) along with a great craft book (which includes a sloe gin recipe I need to try!) and "Men Without Women" which was on my Amazon wishlist.

More quality reading with "Boulle's Jewels", Avengers Assemble on DVD and CDs by Ben Howard, Mumford & Sons and Plan B, which goes very nicely with my ticket to see Plan B in February! I also got this ace make-you-own-zombie kit and hologram mirror from my friend. The girl on the case blinks when you tilt it and it's just like something from Japan, so I love it!

We have a look at everyone's presents and Mum has got one of the best:

It's a massive duck slipper you put both feet into! How ace is that?!

Now it's time for lunch (about 1pm). Being a vegetarian means you don't get the traditional lunch of turkey at Christmas.

This year's menu was pea soup with parmesan crisps, then spinach and stilton pasta with roast tatties (potatoes), neeps (swede/turnip) and (my favourite!) brussel sprouts, followed by Christmas pudding, trifle and key lime cheesecake. Of course, being Christmas, you have to try a little of each dessert!

Full of food, we make ourselves comfortable for the Queen's Speech at 3pm, which my Granny likes. Some of us fall asleep, some read our new books and some watch something good on the telly. This year we played Pointless, the board game. The rules were a bit complicated so we just played it like the TV show and I played Xander and Richard, complete with scoreboard noises!

Before we knew it, it was time for even more food! At about 6:30pm we have a small buffet, followed by a cup of tea and Christmas cake.

At about 8pm it's hometime, which really just involves getting home, finding a comfy seat and, even when you thought you could eat no more, tucking into your new sweets whilst watching Eastenders!

Does that sound anything like your Christmas Day? What traditions do you stick to?